CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—Junior Jenny Coleman is in contention in seventh place after another solid round of 1-over par 73 here at the 2012 Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational. As a team, the Buffaloes slipped one spot and are tied for 17th entering Sunday’s final round.

Coleman sits a 1-over par 145 through two rounds and her seventh-place standing is just five strokes behind the leader. As a team, the Buffs shot 24-over par 312 and sit at 47-over par 623 through two rounds.

“Jenny just continues to play so well,” CU coach Anne Kelly said. “And she still has some room to improve. If she could get a couple putts to fall, she’d be shooting in the 60s nearly every round. As a team, we’re still struggling a little bit, but we had a few other bright spots today. We just need to keep hanging in there and plugging away. It will come.”

Host North Carolina shot a 5-over par 293 and sits at 5-over par 581 and owns a 10-stroke lead over the field entering Sunday’s final round. Baylor is second at 15-over par 591 with Florida third at 17-over par 593. N.C. State and Virginia are both tied for fourth at 19-over par 595. After that, teams from sixth to 12th are separated by only five strokes.

As a team, the Buffs settled down dramatically in the second half of their respective rounds. The four players scoring for the team shot a collective 24-over par in their first nine holes on the back nine of the course and then rebounded, improving by 20 strokes on the course’s front nine to shoot a collective 4-over par. The Buffs also showed improvement in the number of holes at double bogey or worse with just six such instances on the day as a team.

Coleman opened with a par and then bogeyed the par 4 No. 11 to go one over, where she would remain on her front nine after seven straight pars. She made the turn to No. 1 and had a bogey to go to 2-over par, but then had consecutive birdies on Nos. 3 and 4 to get back to even par before getting a bogey on the par 4 No. 9 to close her round.

She continued her brilliant play on the season and through 11 rounds she has a stroke average of 72.9, which improves to 72.0 over her last nine rounds. In relation to par, she is 7-over through 11 rounds, and a collective 3-under par in her last nine rounds.

Freshman Alexis Keating had a solid round of 3-over par 75 and is currently 11-over par 155 through two rounds and tied for 55th. After closing her front nine with three bogeys in four holes to go 4-over, she got things going and shot a 1-under par on her last nine holes with a birdie and eight pars.

Freshman Allie Zech shot a 9-over par 81 and is 17-over par 161, tied for 83rd place. She got off to a rough start with double bogeys on her first two holes, but then settled down and shot 5-over the remaining 16 holes, including shooting even par on her back nine and 1-under on her last eight holes of the day with two birdies and a bogey.

“Both Allie and Alexis played well on their back nines, they were definitely getting in a groove, Alexis with a 35 and Allie a 36,” Kelly said. “Alexis had a really nice comeback to shoot a 75.”

Freshman Megan Haase shot an 11-over par 83 and is 18-over par 162, tied for 87th place. She shot a 6-over par on her front nine with four pars, four bogeys and one double bogey, and was 5-over on her back nine with four pars and five bogeys.

Junior Kristin Coleman shot a 12-over par 84 and is 20-over par 164 and in 91st place. She had a rough patch on her front nine where she had two double bogeys and a 10 on the par 5 No. 17, shooting 9-over in a span of six holes. Other than those three holes, she was 3-over on the other 15 holes with a birdie and four bogeys.

Baylor’s Hayley Davis remains in the lead at 4-under par 140 with a one stroke lead over Florida’s Isabelle Lendl, who sits at 3-under par 141 while Louisville’s Tara Lyons is third at 2-under par 142. North Carolina’s Maia Schechter is fourth at 1-under par 143 while Virginia’s Brittany Altomare and Mississippi’s Haley Sanders are tied for fourth at even par 144, one stroke ahead of Jenny Coleman and six others tied at 1-over par 145.

The final round will commence Sunday at 9 a.m. ET/7 a.m. MT. The Buffs will then close out the fall portion of their schedule Oct. 28-30 at the Alamo Invitational in San Antonio, Texas.